Uganda’s Ill-fated Peacekeepers

He was kicked, dragged, stoned and spat on. And thus the fate of yet another Ugandan soldier whose corpse was left to rot in Mogadishu’s notorious Baar Ubax junction was sealed. The unidentified soldier, complete in his military gear, was last night captured by Al-Shabab fighters in Mogadishu’s Northern district of Boondheere after a fierce gun battle took place between the forces. It is the third day of intense battles in the capital and the death toll is also increasing. Bakara market, the city’s busiest, has been under constant shelling and the number of innocent civilians thought to have been killed there has risen sharply.

Local residents denouncing AMISOM’s indiscriminate shelling has risen far above the wailing mothers whose sons have perished under the rubble. The TFG has also been severely criticized by the population for failing to put an end to the ‘Bakara genocide’ or ‘Xasuuqa Bakaaraha’ as it is known locallly. It is the Islamists, Al-Shabab, however, who have been commanding the limelight and choreographing events in the last few days, and Mogadishu’s media has been inundated with the gruesome images of AU peacekeeper’s corpses lying in the baking Somali sun or being dragged through the streets by children. Yesterday morning two Ugandan soldiers were on display in the Maslax compound; today, the corpse of another Ugandan soldier is wasting away in Baar Ubax, surrounded by a crowd of cheerful Al-Shabab supporters eager to dissect it.

But the flragrant public display of enemy combatants’ corpses has become something of a spectacle here in Mogadishu. The body of the soldier, conspicuously displayed in one of Mogadishu’s busiest junctions, drew an unusually large crowd. People, young and old, were chanting praises of Al-Shabab. While taking these pictures, I heard some young men to the left of me chanting ‘Allahu Akbar – this is what you deserve. May you rot in hell.” An elderly lady squeezed her way through the tight crowd and spat on the face of the dead soldier screaming: ‘what brought him to my soil? what brought an infidel to my soil? go to hell!’ Another onlooker with a quizzical look on his face muttered: “is this the face of those who killed our sons? I wish they would have brought him alive!”

The Flamingo

Blood-stained Helmets

It is a bleak atmosphere. And while the Somali president, Sheikh Sharif, was busy congratulating his Ugandan counterpart for the election victory and for the continued support, the hundreds of chanting residents that huddled around the corpse of the soldier in Baar Ubax were congratulating the Islamists for killing the AU soldiers.

The Chanting Crowd

Onlookers take pictures of the corpse

The corpse, dressed in a tattered uniform with a worn out Ugandan flag, still bearing the flamingo emblem, would soon be another statistic in Mogadishu’s merciless terrain. No ceremonial burial awaited him, no soldiers escorted him to the cemetery, no trumpets, no bands and no lugubrious songs of death and despair were sung at his funeral. Only the stumping of feet and the stampede of an uproarious crowd who viewed him as an invader – not a peacekeeper!

That is not how you treat a neighbor who comes to stop a fire on your house. If Al-shabaab thinks killing one Ugandan peace keeper tantamount to victory then lets wait and see the impact of a Ugandan F-16 on them.

Remember behind every human being, there is wolf hiding it needs time and circumstances to come out. ( book of psychology). Remember also God does not put burdon on any one , more than his capacity, What one sowed , will Reap the same no thing less nothing more. May God forgive us for our sins, We comitted knowingly or un knowingly.Ameen.

this is very disturbing…don’t know about Ugandans but… why are Burundian being killed in Somalia, their bodies being dragged around by crazy people? They should be back in their country where they are most needed and do their job…Somalians don’t want anybody to interfere in their affairs so…let them go crazy and kill each other…the last thing Burundians need is Al Qaida on our back…right? we got enough problems!

We shall continue shelling the Al-Shabab for as long as they continue existing they will never take over Somalia not at any one given moment, let the government of Somalia and the international community give Uganda the full authority to go and attack and not wait to be attacked. I love my country and i love the UPDF

What are Somalians doing in Uganda,.. i remember some time back, ugandans wanted to kill them because of this since they are here as refugges. Again, they government should bring back our people since they are taken as invaders hence ugandans should start doing the same to all somalians who are living in our country, eating our food and enjoying the peace.